them as well, yet while being unable to "stain" one of the Ladies and so, secretely or not, interfere with the Royal line of Descendency.
Basically trusted with tasks of imperial household affairs, many eunuchs were able to climb up the social ladder and to occupy posts at the court that made them able to influence the ruler and his decisions. Their numbers multiplied the longer the Ming Dynasty ruled, the number of eunuchs at the court reaching between 15- and 20.000 already in the early years of the Ming Dynasty. By the time the Dynasty ended with the suicide of the Chongzhen Emperor (Reign Period: 2 October 1627 AD – 25 April 1644) who was found at Jingshan in Beijing in 1644 AD with one of his loyal court eunuchs hanging from the tree adjacent, there were about 70,000 eunuchs employed by the Emperor in- as well as outside the Palace. By that time a massive number of Eunuchs were working within the Provinces and Regions of the Empire, in administrative, military and tax accounting jobs while only a minority of them actually served inside the Imperial palace which by then had been erected in Beijing. Developing from the time of the Yongle Emperor onwards eunuchs were not just in service as household slaves or occassional helpers of the Emperor, but their group had established themselves as a seperate branch of the Imperial Government. They had been allowed to work as civil servants, administrators, court advisors and ministers, and military officers and admirals participating in all of the most essential matters of the Dynasty. Although through the later centuries of the Qing Dynasty rule and thereafter eunuchs have been demonised as a through and through untrustworthy lot, the corrupt and perverse group who was resonsible for many of the woes of succeeding Dynasties in Chinese history, in reality the eunuchs were far more than that.
CHINESE MEN AS EUNUCHS:
During most of the length of the Ming Dynasty, the bulk of the eunuchs employed were found among the multitudes of men derived from poor Han Chinese families, who out of ambition and a sign of personal loyalty to the Emperor and Empire were
"volunteered" to be castrated and donated to the court as (sort of sacrificial) gift. Other young men, often disconnected from their families, volunteered by themselves, opting for the chance of confounded but comfortable life under the wings of the Emperor in his Palace, rather than facing the horrible economic and social difficulties of their time, sure to be found throughout the Empire outside the sacred walls. In order to win some, they sacrificed something. In a more primitive society than today, rife with magical thoughts, superstitions and invested with traditional idea's about mortality, the after life and the succession of generations it was a costly sacrifice indeed.
As the monk Sima Qian already described as early as the 1st century BC the social stigma involved was truly enormous. Sima Qian wrote how “There is no defilement so great as castration. One who has undergone this punishment nowhere counts as a man. This is not just modern attitude; it has always been so. Even an ordinary fellow is offended when he has to do business with an eunuch- how much more so, then, a gentleman!”
What might ne added is that more than a full millenium later this attitude towards eunuchs was still widespread if not just plain commonplace. Even the eunuchs themselves felt about it in much the same way. The were a universally despised and therefor usually close knit group.
In Chinese society the eunuchs were Men who no longer were men and would not have children to take care of them in their old days. In addition, the family line, a precious right derived from the work of all previous generations suffering, would be ended. In a society were (Confucian) idea's of "Filial Piety" (I.e. unquestioned loyalty to parents, elders and ancestors) were the first and highest norm for a Son, especially a first born son, this had enormous implications. For this reason, many Eunuchs were found to be ambitious to get as much benefit out of their sacrificial cutting as possible. In this way, by becoming influential at court, hopefully rich and better yet also high in rank, a eunuch would find himself in a position to give back to the family and so restore some of the cost suffered in the exchange with the Royal House. Rich eunuchs were known to own land estates, mansions and the like, and after setting their families up for life, they might set to work on taking care of the Ancestral Tombs. By making large sacrificial offerings or even building Shrines and Temples in their honor some of the dishonor of not carrying forth the family line through a son was thought to be mediated to some extend.
In the ultimate case, whenever a eunuch reached high enough in Rank and influence, the Emperor, out of his great generosity, might allow his Eunuch to find a "surrogate wife" adopt children and so nearly restore himself and his family to their honors. A Last problem the eunuchs faced then was the traditional Chinese thought that all deceased humans should be buried whole and in one piece. For those who were not intact upon their Journey into the afterlife would wander around lost forever tormented by insecurity and therefor presented themselves later on as Ghost (Hooliqing) who would haunt either family, or just any mere mortal for infinity.
The only way for the eunuch spirit to survive into the next life was to be buried whole, which oddly meant buying back ones own (sawn off) penis - which often had been wisely preserved by the "doctor" who had performed the operation, usually at extremely exaggerated prices. Anyone who could not find or retrieve their penis and died, would be lost in space and time forever with no way forward.
PRISONERS OF WAR TAKEN AWAY AS EUNUCHS:
The Court eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty however were not merely found among the sons of lesser families, who had made their sacrifice in order to gain the one unique chance of skyrocketing to the top of the social pyramid. Eunuchs were also often captives, specifically members of vanquished rebellious peoples, or just simply those who had happened to find themselves on the wrong side of the local political situation when it collapse. Such eunuchs were basically prisoners of war, who before their virtual release to serve some kind of menial servant job somewhere, were castrated to ensure that their conquered family line did not expand further into the future beyond their own lives. Naturally, without modern medicines and aneasthetics the crude operation was quite risky. Many of the men subjected died shortly thereafter from either massibe blood loss or the inevitable infections.
The strong and lucky who survived then saw their lives spared, not out of generosity but more because their lives could still be useful. They, the new subjects, after proper humilation, could still be useful in all kinds of ways, depending on their backgrounds, education and talents. The first Emperor to recognize this fact and make use of eunuchs on a large scale was the Yongle emperor 
(Reign Period: 17 July 1402 – 12 August 1424 AD).
When the Ming army finally captured the regions of today's Yunnan Province from remnants of the fallen Mongolian Yuan Dynasty (1271 AD - 1368 AD officially) and sympathizers in 1382, thousands of prisoners were killed and, according to the custom in times of war, their young sons were castrated and taken away as slaves of the conquerers. During the later Rebellions in the same southern regions mainly by the Miao Tribes, Ming Armies once again descended on the territories overrunning the hillside villages and murdering the Men. As a form of retirbution as well as repression, Chinese commanders castrated many more thousands of Miao boys in the tribal regions, and then gave them as slaves to various officials. One of these young boys would later find himself a close assistant to the Ming Emperor Yongle becoming famous as Admiral Zheng He, the number one explorer in Chinese and possibly world maritime history.
EUNUCHS AND THEIR POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN THE MING DYNASTY:
The greater part of the eunuchs came from poor families from territories in the north China, while the scholar-officials that traditionally occupied governmental posts, came from gentry clans in southern China. The problem of the intermingling of the eunuchs into state affairs was not new. As early as the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) the eunuchs had become a tradition, leading often to political intrigue. During the whole course of Ming Dynasty, there was always a deep mistrust between the scholarship elite, that occupied the governmental posts in the capital(s) and in the prefectures, and the central government, that was often deeply influenced by some high ranking eunuchs predominantly from Northern area's. There was thus always a split between rivaling power-groups at Court.
The authoritarian and centralized politics of the Ming government lead to a status of immovability and Confucianism-inspired orthodoxy. Strong Emperors founded the Ming Dynasty and reigned supreme, however the Imperial Powers were vulnerable to manipulations when Emperor's were weak. Such a situation frequently occurred during the later reigns of the Ming Dynasty, leading eventually to its downfall. Traditional historians held that one of the main failures of the Ming Dynasty had been the unchecked trickery of the corrupt eunuchs.
The Yongle Emperor was one of the strong Emperors of the Ming Dynasty, and the main man laying the foundations for the later integration of the eunuchs as a power group within the Imperial administrative system rather than just a bunch of household servants who could do little more than plot court intrigue, and manipulate the Emperor and his courtiers. Much owing to the circumstances of his usurping the Throne through a military campaign, the Yongle Emperor found himself unable to trust large sections of his subordinate Imperial apparatus, especially the Confucian scholar gentry who would normallybe expected to uphold the heavens and works as the main hands of the Emperor. His move on the Dragon hrone resented, and thus resisted by his Imperial Administrators the Yongle Emperor took a flexible stand and instead chose to have himself ssisted in large part by eunuchs, a court group who felt grossly mistreated by the previous Emperors, Hongwu - who had hated and despised the eunuchs- and Jianwen who had closely followed the advise of Hongwu never to see eunuchs come to a position of power within the Imperial Courts (again). Where both Hongwu and Jianwen had adhered much to the classical way of rule exclusively through the educated and the military, favoring the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats, Zhu Di reinventeed the enitire system replacing untrustworthy Ministers and otherr administrators with his own trusted eunuchs. It is said that the support of the eunuchs was curcial in the further career of the Yongle Emperor, allowing him to survive the initial attacks on his fief Beijing in north China by the legitimate Jianwen Emperor allowing him to go on the counter offensive at all.
Driving his miltary south at breakneck pace before the Empire could recover, the Prince of Yan soon managed to capture the southern Capital at Nanjing in 1402 and subsequently declaring his new Reign era as Yongle (time of "Perpetual Happiness"). During the following Reign Period, further promotions of eunuchs inside the Court apparatus would find an entirely new Imperial Administrative apparatus.
ADMIRAL ZHENG HE, SPECIAL ENVOY OF THE YONGLE EMPEROR, SAINT SAN BAO OF THE SOUTH EAST ASIAN ISLANDS:
Initally but a lowly war survivor, and captive robbed from his manhood, the eunuch known as Zheng He provides an excellent example of the ability of eunuchs ability to rise rapidly within the ranks, as well as a shining example of how eunuchs were not mere servants but really as much experts in their fields as were other, be they Confucian scholars or army Generals. As such, in modern days at least Zheng He can be considered the most famous and most appreciated eunuch in Chinese history.
Renowned far beyond the borders of the Ming Empire, the tall, handsome and charismatic Admiral Zheng He was beyond any doubt the greatest Captain and Admiral in Chinese history, also claiming a star role in world maritime history.
As mentioned earlier on, the young Zheng He derived from the southernmost fringes of the Empire in regions now part of Yunnan Province. There he was born under the traditional Muslim name of Ma. He himself was Ma He, son of a muslim family who were in the service of the previous Yuan Dynasty imperial apparatus. Having received a high status under the mongolian Rule, even after the fall of the Empire and the retreat of Mongolian forces towards the borders, the family remained loyal and continued serving the Mongolian Overlords of their previous Mongolian benefactors.
As the Ming Dynasty forces took control of region after region within the old Yuan Empire Yunnan held out for a long time before being overrun. As a result, the revenge of the enemy now ruler was cruel and harsh. Although not murdered on the spot and thus lucky, Ma He as a son of a collaborator was castrated. Not before long he found himself being sent into Imperial Palace of the Emperor. By then recognized for his literacy, education and smart wits he then was assigned a task as an Imperial servant.
The young Ma He however was not but just a servant but gained the important position of personal servant to the Fourth Son of the Emperor Hong Wu, the flamboyant Prince of Yan, the man who would later on become the Ming Emperor Yongle.
A rather sophisticated young man who came from what can be considered as a relatively well of provincial family, Ma He was subsequently given the opportunity to add to his skills, soon developing himself into a fine warrior, an experienced scout and a war commander in the prince of Yan’s camp.
In the civil war that followed the succession of Emperor Hongwu, Ma De managed to stall an enemy attack around the Zheng Village Dike, enabling the prince to counterattack and destroy his enemy, in the most pivotal of battle during that brief war. For this, his surname was changed by imperial edict into Zheng. After that, Zheng He became a supervisor of court civil engineering and procurer of fireworks and metals.
In the subsequent reign of the Yongle Emperor, Zheng He would become the Admiral and Commander of an astounding fleet that would sail out to neighboring maritime nations, as well as venture far beyond to explore parts of the oceans and globe probably never seen before.
Soon after the defeat of the Jianwen Emperor and the establishment of the Yongle Rule with the city of Beijing as its new glorious Capital, a gaint fleet and a navy were built staffed with an additional 100,000 combat troops under imperial order in an effort to further stabilize the Nation further an recapture the chaotic coastal regions. The fleet subsequently deploys in order to stop organized and groups of Japanese pirates who have been marauding the Chinese coast since decades.
ZHENG HE TRIBUTE MISSIONS AND ADDITIONAL MARITIME EXPLORATIONS OF THE GLOBE:
In 1405, Zheng He is awarded the task which he is most famous and renowned for today starting the first of his seven voyages that brought him to Java and the East African, traversing the Indian Ocean. His fleet was 63 ships strong with the largest measuring 444 feet x 180 feet. These expeditions spread the Ming cultural influence across whole swaths of South-East Asian lands, enabling nations as diverse as Annam to Malacca and Borneo to become vassal states to Ming China. Unfortunately, the large cost of such expeditions and perhaps the prominence of the Zheng He caused severe opposition from the scholar-literati of the age. Later on, the whole record of Zheng He’s voyages was completely burned by a Liu Daxia, a director of the Transportation bureau, who bemoaned the cost of those voyages.
Hou Xin, is second to Zheng He, whose fleet he sailed with, in terms of fame among all eunuch during the 200 years plus of Ming dynasty. A member of the great Ming eunuch-diplomat-envoy corps, he was instrumental in expanding the Ming influence into Nepal, Bengal, Tibet and Jaunpaur.
Nguyen An is a native of Annam (current day north Vietnam), who became an eunuch in Ming China, famous foremost because he became the architect of the Forbidden Palace. He was also talented in arts and was expert in civil engineering, a veritable renaissance man. Among his other achievements, he toured and strengthened the engineering works around the Grand Canal in 1449.
Wang Zhen was another now notorious Chinese eunuch who monopolized power during the first reign of the emperor Yingzong. Wang was denounced by later historians as the first of a series of eunuchs whose mismanagement helped destroy the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).
At one Time during the 16Th Century reign of Zhu Haochao (Emperor Wuzong 1505 AD - 1521 AD), who was the weakest ruler of all Ming, the Chief Eunuch, one Liu Jin, managed to maneuver himself in control of all State Affairs. The period saw a lot of political intrigue and bloodshed, eroding court power and losing the Ming crucial popularity among its many disgruntled citizens. Rebellions occured in the south.
THE EUNUCH WEI ZHONGXIAN:
One hundred years later the Chief Eunuch Wei Zhongxian (1568 AD - 1627 AD) would go even further. Becoming the predominant power at Court through manipulation of the Tianqi Emperor Xizong (1621 AD - 1627 AD), Eunuch Wei went on a widespread purge of officials, brutalizing the other power-groups at Court into his submission with the Eunuchs newfound power. In the ensuing period the Eunuchs were practically in control of everything, running the Palace and the State for the Emperor. Needless to say the Chief Eunuch further abused power, plundering state finances and even inspiring a personality culture complete erecting shrines in his own honor. This marked a true low-point in imperial authority during the Ming Reign. The Chief Eunuch was eventually caught up with by the suspicions of the Emperor. Helped by remaining enemies of the Chief Eunuch, the Emperor had Wei Zhongxian banished from Court, after which Wei's suicide and a spree of revenge killings and punishments put an end to the whole Wei power-clique. The damage to the Empire had however already been done. Reinforced by the effects of natural disasters and droughts, the ensuing chaos and enmity against the Ming led to numerous uprisings throughout the Empire. Peasants were revolting in many area's. Poverty led to banditry, which in turn led to more armies marching against the Throne. In the North the Manchu Prince Nuerhachi had broken away from the Ming Empire (1616 AD) and united the Jurchen people, establishing a parallel Dynasty named Jing (changed to Chin in 1636 AD). The succeeding Emperors would have to be strong to overcome the challenges now facing the Ming, however history would prove the tide could not be turned against their downfall. The eunuchs' manipulations had mortally wounded the Empire.
Feng Bao is one the model Confucian eunuch of the Ming dynasty. Well learned, he is diligent and compassionate. Initially, one of the seal eunuchs, he became the grand guardian of the Ceremonial Directorate. He later held the title of the grand secretary, and also director of the East Depot. He together with the statesman Zhang Juzheng, and the background support of the Dowager Empress, helped to manage the affairs of nation under Emperor Wanli.
Another eunuch during the Wanli reign was Chen Ju, who helped to maintain a working inner court, while the outer court was torn asunder into several waring factions. In death, for his service, he was conferred the title “Pure and Loyal”.
The succeeding Dynasty, the arriving Manchu, had seen the internal chaos resulting from the plots of the Eunuchs during the Ming Reign. As a result, at the beginning of the new Qing Dynasty their numbers were greatly reduced, many were executed and all demoted to the lowest ranks. The majority of remaining eunuchs were sent home finally breaking their power at court. Even then however, the eunuchs would return !
